Women cross finish line in top 25
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 6, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 7, 1996
CROSS COUNTRY:
Men drop one place to 28th despite Keflezighi’s winBy Vytas
Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
The new rankings for cross country were just released.
To nobody’s surprise, Arkansas and Providence remained ranked
No. 1 in the men’s and women’s polls.
The pleasant surprise lies in the ranking of the UCLA women’s
cross country team in the polls. The fourth-place finish at the
Pacific 10 championships and the defeat of previously 20th-ranked
Oregon rewarded the women with a 23rd-place tie with Nebraska.
The women’s cross country team which had no votes in the Finish
Lynx poll two weeks ago, received 24 votes to surpass Oregon and
regain the ranked status that they had not possessed since the
first weeks of the season when they were ranked 24th in the
nation.
"We’ve been hovering around the final spot in the polls for most
of the season," women’s cross country coach Eric Peterson said.
The surprise team of the Pac-10 meet was Washington, which
replaced Arizona as the second- ranked team in the Pac-10. The
Huskies took over 11th place in the rankings and the Wildcats, who
were previously ranked 11th, fell five spots to 16th place.
The men’s team fell one spot in the rankings from 27th to 28th
place. Even their strong performance  third place at the
Pac-10’s  and Mebrahtom Keflezighi’s record-setting victory
were not enough to warrant a top-25 ranking.
As for the rest of the Pac-10, after being dominated by Stanford
at the conference championship, all teams previously ranked or
receiving points fell in the Martin Surfacing poll. Oregon dropped
two spots, from fourth to sixth, with District VIII rival Portland
jumping to fifth place. Arizona dropped out of the rankings
completely, failing to receive a single vote.
